The winners of the 2012 Sydney Writers’ Centre Best Australian Blogs competition have been announced.

Once again this year I was the judge of the ‘words’ category. I also helped to choose the overall winner.

The winner of the ‘words’ category is, happily, Lisa Hill’s ANZ LitLovers LitBlog. If you’ve been reading Australian lit blogs for a while, no doubt you would have come across it. I told the Centre:

This blog has a clear focus and is an easily accessible wealth of information, with a healthy community aspect. It’s the perfect mix between informal and informative, and Hill’s incredible commitment, dedication and passion for her subject—Australian and New Zealand literature—is to be admired.

The other finalist blogs in the ‘words’ category were:

Wade Bowmer’s Just Add Story: a blog of humble, clear, fresh and insightful musings on writing. Bowmer is a fantasy writer and programmer but his insights are valuable to any writer (emerging or otherwise).

Tara Moss’ The Book Post: Moss is a passionate lover of books, reading and literary culture, and she doesn’t shy away from public debate on important issues. Topics range from writing, feminism, Australian literature, and genre fiction to Moss’ esoteric interests—which all cohere through her unique voice. This is an entertaining, informative and engaging blog.

Katy McDevitt’s PublishEd Adelaide: a practical, focused and friendly blog about editing and life as an editor. McDevitt has a way of writing about editing that feels both fresh and original, and entirely commonsensical. She shares great, realistic ideas.

The multi-authored Killings: Kill Your Darlings blog: a great blog covering a range of cultural topics, via a range of voices. It looks fantastic and is updated frequently. It’s a smart lifestyle blog that perfectly complements the Kill Your Darlings magazine.

Last year’s wordy category winner was Bothersome Words.

A huge congratulations to all, and thanks so much to the Sydney Writers’ Centre for asking me to judge such a fun competition.